


Warrior Mama

by the_authors_exploits



Series: Gotham's Queen [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Female Jason Todd, Lots of domesticity, a day in the life of Mama Jay, some mentions of violence (beheadings)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-14
Updated: 2018-05-14
Packaged: 2019-05-06 22:04:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14657142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_authors_exploits/pseuds/the_authors_exploits
Summary: Jay is never not busy





	Warrior Mama

“If you want to clean your room, by all means; but he’s not going in your room.” Jay raises a brow, lifting her mug to her lips and taking a deep drink.

“But Ma! We wouldn’t do anything!” The teenager folds her arms in frustration, pouting.

Jay flicks her hand dismissively and hums. “I’m not changing my mind; go make your bed, please.”

Carrie huffs, but does as she was told; Jay drinks more of her coffee. It’s way too early and her ribs are still sore from last night’s tussle down at the docks. But Eric doesn’t need to know this, even when he comes shrieking down the hall to slam against her body, arms wrapped tight around her waist in a hug. She hides a wince and runs her fingers through his long blond hair.

“And who are you running from this morning?”

“Tam!”

“Do I want to know?”

“Eric!” Tam comes from the same way, golden sharpie over his face; a mustache across his upper lip and circles on his cheeks like blush. “I’m gonna murder you!”

Her cup is empty. “Mama needs more coffee.” She gently pushes Eric from her bubble, and raises that perfected brow at her other son. “Tam, what happened?”

“That monster! He drew all over my face; Mama, I’m never gonna get it cleaned before school.”

“Eric,” she chastises. “We do not draw all over our brother’s face while he’s sleeping.” She’s such a hypocritical parent; at least Eric doesn’t know how to draw dicks yet. Dick hadn’t been amused at all with her… She shakes her head. “Tam, I’ve got some makeup wipes under the counter in my bathroom; see if that doesn’t help. If not, we’ll all go to school with sharpie on.”

Lorain, a slice of toast hanging from her mouth, squeezes by. “I will not.”

Jay scowls playfully at her eldest; “All of us.”

Georgie makes a cry from the kitchen, and Jay feels like slapping herself. “Oh, shit…” She cups Eric’s face and bends down. “Only mamas can say that, ok?”

He nods, face pinched as if trying to understand what shit means, and Tam rolls his eyes before hurrying off to find those makeup wipes; Eric follows her to the kitchen, where the twins are strapped waiting in their highchairs. The microwave makes a quiet beep, clearly having been finished warming breakfast for a while, and Jay starts it again; she refills her cup and pulls a tumbler from the cabinet and fills that one too. She adds four spoons of sugar and gulps it down.

When the microwave beeps once more, she takes the plastic bowls out and sets them before the twins; she hands Danny a sippy cup of juice and helps George hold his spoon properly. It won’t be that useful in a while, both twins opting to eat with their hands, and Jay turns to regard Eric.

“Toast, oatmeal, or cereal?”

“Toast! With nut butter.”

“Peanut butter, you got it, kiddo.”

She bustle about the kitchen; filling plates, wiping the twins down when they get too messy, chatting quietly with Eric. Occasionally, she calls down the hallway for updates from her other five kids.

“Ten minute update!”

Lorain, Chloe, and Carrie call almost done, while Theo stumbles out from his room with his shirt on backwards and Tam barrels into the kitchen red faced from scrubbing the ink off. Jay kneels down and helps her four year old get his shirt on properly; she hefts him on her hip and reaches out to tip Tam’s face, inspecting.

“Lemme see; hm. You did a good job; the irritation will go away by the time we get to school.” She turns towards the hallway. “Girls! Let’s go!”

Chloe comes next, dressed in black and chains and a mesh shirt that Jay raises a brow and asks her to change.

“You can keep the chains, but change that shirt; try a Led Zepplin one, please.”

Chloe shrugs and goes to obey; Lorain’s afro is poofed perfectly, a halo about her face, and Carrie asks Jay to check her braid.

“Looks good, hun; ok, breakfast for anyone who didn’t grab it, brush your teeth after. Lunches on the table by the door; grab yours this time, please! I don’t want to hear that you stole one of your sibling’s just for the hell of it.” Most have their own lunchboxes, especially the younger kids, but the older ones merrily utilize brown bags with their names written on in--yup--gold sharpie.

Jay takes a washcloth and cleans off the twins, then Theo, and inspects Eric closely for any food shoved in his pockets; Chloe returns in her Led Zepplin shirt and Jay offers a grateful smile. She checks the time.

“Three minutes, then you’d best get your butts in the car.” Jay pockets the car keys, grabs her travelmug, and checks herself quickly in the mirror by the door; hardly any bruises that are noteworthy, and her sweats and sleeveless shirt don’t look too rubbish. She huffs, and turns to inspect the parade of children before her.

“All dishes in the sink and rinsed, Mama,” Eric nearly yells, and Jay wishes she had his energy.

She grabs the baby bag for Danny and George, takes Danny by hand and settles George on her hip. “Buddy system; does everyone have their buddy?”

Eric latches to Theo, while Tam grabs Chloe’s hand and Carrie and Lorain stand close; Jay nods, eyeing each one for a final check. She nods again, and opens the door.

“Let’s go; hut hut, one two, one two!”

“Left, right!” Tam calls jokingly and the kids laugh.

Jezebel is out, smoking as she does, and she waves to them as they exit the apartment building. “Morning, kids! Have a good day at school!”

Jay buckles the twins in, checks Theo’s seatbelt, and starts the Nissan passenger van. “Belts!” She reminds, and hears an audible click. “Sound off.”

A call of  _ one _ from Lorain, then Tam and Carrie and Chloe call their numbers, and Eric practically shrieks his out; Theo responds at a similar volume, only muffled by the fingers he’s chewing on, and Jay ends it all with “seven and eight” for the twins.

“Good, we all made it.”

The children chatter, quiet music playing through the speakers, and occasionally Chloe or Tam will start singing offkey and lure their siblings in to join too; first stop is the high school, where Jay watches her four teenagers traipse through the doors and into the building. She waves when Carrie turns to look over her shoulder, and then gets the younger kids to their kindergarten.

With a twin on either hip, and Theo and Eric gripping the hem of her shirt, she walks the two kindergarteners to the front office; she signs them in, talking amicably with Nora at the front desk.

“You look haggard, Miss Todd.”

She flashes a smile, reaching over to tug George from wandering away; she finishes signing Theo and Eric in, then bends to give each a kiss on the cheek.

“Be good today; I'll be back at 1 to pick you up.” Another quick kiss and they scamper off with their other classmates; Jay sets Danny down with his brother, as practice will help them get better at walking, and takes hold of both tiny hands.

She runs out of coffee halfway home, which is probably a good thing in the long run; she could bring the twins to daycare, but she figures they deserve a day with Mama.

“Hey, Danny,” she calls and the kid kicks his feet in response. “What do you think about us going home and doing laundry?”

They babble with her; at home, she starts a load of laundry. Lights and darks separated because there's such a pile to get through; once that's done, she washes the dishes. There's a dishwasher she could use but she has time to waste so she does a majority of it by hand.

She asks Georgie to help her put the rest of the dishes in the machine, and has Danny sit with a picture book in the living room; she has some street work to get through on her laptop, so she starts a PBS show to help keep the twins entertained. While they play and babble along with CyberChase, Jay goes over the crime scene photos; a beheading near Penguin's territory…

Not quite his style, but Jay doesn't put it past him; could be a smaller gang trying to pin it on a larger villain, but that seems unlikely too since the victim has no ties to a gang. A worker at a grocery store, she has no ink on her record; a quiet woman with few friends and no living family… A good victim choice, but for what reason?

“Mama!” Danny comes toddling over and claps his hands against her thigh; she expertly closes the files, shoves them back behind the encrypted wall in case one of her kids gets ahold of her laptop, and reaches down to grab Danny close and tickle him mercilessly, peppering him with kisses.

“My little monster!” 

He shrieks peals of laughter, and George toddles over to join in on the tickle fest; she spends some time playing with them on the living room floor. They stack blocks, and color pictures, and she gets them to sit down and read through a book with her before they start throwing tantrums. It’s getting close to lunch but they should know better than to start a scene like this; she reprimands them, taking Danny’s flailing hands in hers and widening her eyes for effect.

“Use your words,” she directs. “Mama, we’re hungry.”

It takes a few tries, but they both calm down and both are able to mumble out the simple sentence; she smiles encouragingly, and escorts them to the kitchen for lunch.

“Want some carrots and chicken nuggets?”

They nod, and she hands them plastic utensils to keep them busy; it gives them a sense of purpose as they toddle and crawl about the kitchen, setting their little forks down on the highchair table and taking them back; Jay warms the nuggets in the microwave, chopping carrots into proper bite sized bits. When the nuggets are ready and the microwave goes off, the twins shriek in excitement, mocking the beeping noise, and Jay lets them have their fun; until it gets too loud, and she shushes them gently.

“Alright, alright!” She hoists Danny into his seat, buckling him in and setting the tray in front of him; she does the same with Georgie before settling their plates in front of them. They’re still learning to feed themselves, but a mess is expected with kiddies.

Jay slaps together a sandwich for herself, and sits at the table; she’s snatched her laptop from the living room and angles it away from the twins so she can work some more on the case. The twins babble, offer food to each other and her, and eventually she can tell their winding down for their nap; wiping a cloth over their grubby little hands, she kisses their noses.

“Come on, little monkeys, we’ve got to go pick up your siblings.”

Danny scrubs at her eyes as she buckles him into his carseat, and Georgie mumbles irritably; hopefully the drive will help them get to sleep and she can just transfer them to their bed when they get back. Theo and Eric are, as always, happy to see her; they run to give her a hug, but with a dozing twin on each hip she can only offer a smile. Still, she signs them out with only minor difficulty, settling Danny to sit on the counter leaning against her shoulder; she gives Nora a tired smile.

“Thanks, Nora.”

The woman shakes her head. “I don’t know how you do it, Miss Todd.”

“Patience,” Jay hides a laugh. “Though I lost my sanity a while ago.” Betrayal, dying, the Pit, who knows.

“Have a good day, Miss Todd.”

The twins still sleep on the way back, while Theo and Eric chatter about their day.

“And Mister Kurtis said we’re getting a class turtle next week!”

“That’s exciting.” She’s still got to pick up Lorain, Chloe, and Tam at 3:30; the kitchen needs to be cleaned from lunch, and Theo and Eric will need a snack. She’d like to get some more work done on the case before tonight, but that might have to wait; there’s still one load of laundry to fold too…

“Mama!” Theo kicks her seat, and she reaches back and grabs his shoe, giving it a gentle but warning squeeze. “Mama, wanna see the picture I made?”

“When we get home, buddo.”

Once back home, she bustles everyone into the apartment; the twins are settled in their room to finish their nap, Theo gets a cut apple for snack and Eric bounces eagerly for crackers and peanut butter. While they eat, Jay gets some housework done. Dishes washed, counters wiped down, and toddlers still sleeping soundly, she’s just finishing up the final load of laundry when the two boys come tumbling into the living room.

“Mama!” Theo holds up an action figure and an arm that isn’t meant to detach. “Mama, fix him!”

She takes the pieces, absently wiping an unnecessary tear from his lashes. “Ok, buddo, hang on; it’s not the end of the world.” She pops the appendage back in place and hands it back over before indicating the piles of clothes. “Think you could put your clothes away for Mama?”

Eric, always energetic and eager to please, snatches his pile and stumbles down the hall; Theo follows at a more sedate pace, and Jay relishes in the moment of peace.

She flops down on the couch with her laptop propped on her stomach; a brief precious moment, she’s got work to do. She scrolls through files, pictures, evidence; hacking into the Batcomputer, circumventing Oracle’s firewalls and Replacement’s defensive viruses, Jay locates any information the Bat may have on the beheading case and transfers it to her own laptop. In the quiet of her apartment, after another ever busy day chasing her kids, she drifts off for her own nap.

Thankfully, her laptop has a safety feature that shuts it down after two minutes of inactivity; with children everywhere and nasty files on the computer, any safety precautions are welcomed. So when Theo and Eric come back tumbling into the living room, they aren’t welcomed by nightmarish sights; instead, they see her sleeping and quietly entertain themselves. Eric knows how to work the tv remote, so he puts on Disney channel and they play with the dollhouse that Jay bought for them last Christmas.

They’re also smart enough to wake her up in time to pick up the other kids from school; she rubs her eye, shoving the laptop aside, as Theo touches her arm and calls her name.

“Mama, we gotta go get the others.”

The twins are up, had been for a while, kept quiet by the older kids; Jay ushers them into the car, energetic as they are after their afternoon nap, and the drive to the school is more tolerable than the wait in the pick up lane. The going is slow, but eventually Jay makes it to the curb and she spots her kids; they make their way to the car and hop in.

“Seat belts!” Jay reminds her troop, waving to a dean overseeing the students; a few clicks later and she begins the drive home. “Lot of homework tonight?”

The kids chatter about their day, tell of science experiments and teacher drama, and they return home in one piece; the apartment grows in energy. Toddlers babble and shriek as their older siblings play with them, the teenagers tap away at phones and scribble out essays, and Jay floats about the house. She helps when needed, washes dishes, gets dinner going, gives out snacks, oversees bathtime.

“Mama!”

“More sharpie, Tam?”

Her son huffs, pouting a glare, and crosses his arms. “No, thankfully! I need help with my math homework.”

Jay knows what to expect, but she still cringes at the equation that’s more alphabet than math. “You want to be a social worker, right?”

At Tam’s nod, Jay pulls her laptop close and types in the equation; the answer pops up and she passes her laptop to her son.

“I give you permission to Google every answer; make sure you get a few wrong though, or it’ll look suspicious.”

“Thanks, Mama.”

Jay moves over to grab Eric under his arms and sling him over her shoulder. “Where’d Eric go?”

Theo laughs, and Georgie and Danny wraps their chubby arms about her thighs; Eric shrieks in delight, squirming about, and Jay shuffles her way to the bathroom.

“Bath time!”

It’s a nightmare to wash all four young ones together, but still somehow easier; they aren’t as squirmy when there are four kids crammed into a bathtub. She scrubs the twins hair with tear free shampoo, nodding at something that Theo says as he dumps a cup of water over his head. He sputters as the water runs down his face, and Jay grabs a cloth to wipe it away for him.

Dinner is a fairly quiet affair once they settle on a movie to watch; The Lion King, which is mature enough for the teenagers and fun enough for the little ones. Dinner is spaghetti and meatballs, a bit messy but not too bad; at eight, just as the movie is getting done, Jay puts the twins down for bed. A half hour later, Theo and Eric are tucked in with kisses to their brow and a brief bedtime story from Carrie.

The teenagers have retreated to their own rooms, winding down for bed; laptops, phone calls, books… Little hobbies they find enjoyable. A school night ends at ten, but Jay’s day isn’t done yet. She slips into the body armor, hidden behind a panel in her closet, and checks her gear, holsters her weapons. She grabs her jacket, a lengthy leather jacket with ripped sleeves, and slips it on. Another quick check over her gear, and she slips out of her room with the helmet tucked under her arm.

She subtly peaks through cracked doors as she creeps out to the fire escape in the living room; Chloe is passed out on her bed, headphones plugged in and music loudly escaping. Jay tiptoes in to turn her ipod down, glances at Carrie who’s facetiming her boyfriend, and Tam is muttering into a headset as he kicks ass at Overwatch. The young ones still sleep, so Jay moves to the living room; she’s just about to tug her helmet on when her eldest daughter’s voice breaks the calm of the night.

“Going out tonight?”

Jay glances over to the corner, where Lorain sits curled in the armchair, steam swirling about her face from the tea in her hands. Jay smiles, fond; she should have never started training Lorain. She’s almost as sneaky as Batman. “I’ll be back early morning.”

Lorain hums and sips her drink; Jay crosses the room to give her a kiss on the crown of her head. “Be careful, Mama; come home in one piece.”

Jay tugs the helmet on, lets it hiss shut and secure, and slips out the window into the night.


End file.
